Month: October 2010

‘A grazing animal, for example, a stag (a forest herbivore …) is vigilant at the same time that it grazes, first with regard to he possible proximity of predators; it can, moreover, even while grazing and protecting itself, also protect its young, as well as its grazing mate, who is herself protecting her young’ (Stiegler 2009/2010:78).

– I am worried that Bernard has only found the bourgeois family reproduced in the Bambi forest scenario, but this is also an opportunity to note that the disturbing picture in The Guardian today of the baby elephant versus the crocodile had a moral narrative – the herd of elephants together made sufficient noise to fend off the croc. For once, perhaps despite itself, The Guardian offers up something noteworthy about popular resistance.

Like this:

Best known internationally for films like “Kung Fu Hustle” and “Shaolin Soccer,” Hong Kong comedien Stephen Chow first gained recognition for “All for the Winner,” a parody of Chow Yun-Fat’s “God of Gamblers. Mainland Chinese, Sing (Stephen Chow) arrives in Hong Kong looking for his Uncle Tat, a gambler who soon discovers Sing’s supernatural ability to see through objects and uses it to their advantage, in climbing up the ranks in a gambling world competition.

Letters

Browne’s plans will drive whole fields of knowledge into decline

The Browne report on higher education funding and student finance is wide of the mark in every respect (Universities: Shock at big cuts in teaching budgets, 21 October). The proposal to scrap the present tuition fee limit of £3,290 in favour of potentially unlimited fees set by universities themselves will load future generations of students with unacceptable levels of debt in order to pursue the democratic right of higher education. Those who benefited from a free, publicly funded, higher education should not tell future generations that they must now take on mortgage-sized debts to pay for the same privilege. We cannot begin to see how this arrangement could possibly be “progressive and fair”.

Second, the proposal to cut the teaching grant distributed to English universities by £3.2bn, with a 100% reduction for the arts, humanitiesand social sciences, is a disaster for higher education, culture and the economy. The Browne report in effect proposes the privatisation of the arts, humanities and social sciences in England. It recommends that the state should no longer have any investment in these areas and that individuals should pay for them. The consequences will be to drive entire fields of knowledge into irreversible decline, leaving the country with one of the lowest public investments in higher education in the industrialised world.

Browne imagines that an unfettered market in tuition fees will free so-called elite universities to compete with the world’s best. On the contrary, if there is no public funding, then there will be no cap on student numbers for institutions. Humanities departments in “elite” universities will only survive by increased student recruitment, serviced at low costs. And what prospect is there that research in the arts, humanities and social sciences will survive the cut in the research budget?

We call on all the vice-chancellors of universities in the UK to voice their implacable opposition to the Browne report. It is their persistent call for increased fees in the past decade that has led Browne and his committee to their short-term, and ideologically driven, conclusions. But Browne does not propose an increase in “top-up fees”, rather the abolition of public funding to entire fields of academic life.

It is time to put aside the myth of “mission groups” that allows ministers to divide and rule the sector; to defend the very idea of the university; and to protect the life chances of future generations of students in England. We urge all academic staff to contribute to the NUS/UCU demonstration in London on 10 November.

Unravelling (2008, 17 mins) is the result of a unique film-making
process, creatively working with poetry, archive materials, visual art
and music. Internationally acclaimed Nitin Sawhney composed a new
score in response to an original inter-generational poetic dialogue in
Urdu between Sawarn Singh, a WWII Indian soldier who fought for the
British in Burma, the Middle East and Africa, before moving to the UK,
and his grandson, Kuldip Powar. Through poetic motifs a sensory
experience emerges, both evocative and haunting, inviting us to
explore our own ambivalences towards collective and personal stories
of war.

Post-Colonial War Requiem (2008) also drew upon the inter-generational
poetic dialogue as the source of inspiration for Francis Silkstone,
who produced a new composition performed with moving musicians.
Benjamin Britten’s original ‘War Requiem’ inaugurated the newly-built
Coventry Cathedral in 1962, offering Remembrance without militarism.
Though consciously inclusive, it did not reference the contributions
of the (former) colonies.
Further Details on Project: http://www.gold.ac.uk/methods-lab/noise-past/

And this letter below from Goldsmiths saying, pretty much, all out for the demonstration – the logistics of how to get the 6000 visitors to the Goldsmiths Open Day down to Downing Street to rattle Cameron’s cage is, of course, still to be worked out.

The Warden held a meeting with UCU representatives at their request to
discuss the Fund our Future Campaign, established jointly between UCU and
the NUS. He separately also met Students’ Union Representatives on this
and other issues.

The College recognises that changes to funding will have significant
consequences for the whole sector in the coming years.

The College management will make its views known to government on its
proposals as they emerge. It will do so individually, and collectively
with sector colleagues through channels open to it, as it always has done.

However, we recognise that many staff, students and other interested
parties feel they will wish to make their views known via the Fund Our
Future Campaign, and this includes a proposed demonstration on 10th
November 2010.

On one hand, the fact that this is in reading week means that this will not
generally put staff and students in the difficult position of choosing
whether to attend college for teaching or go on the demonstration.

We would encourage Heads of Department not to put unnecessary barriers in
the way of staff or students reorganising their working time so that they
can attend the demonstration if they wish to do so.

On the other hand it is unfortunate that the demonstration coincides with
our College Open Day. Our Trades Union colleagues and the Students’ Union
recognise that we need to ensure that this is properly staffed. We would
ask Heads of Department to ensure that they have planned and agreed who is
to attend the Open Day on the Department’s behalf. Can I remind colleagues
that we had more than 6,000 visitors on open Day last year.

I am sure that -working together – staff, student and Heads of Department
can arrange activities in a way that will meet everyone’s needs.

From: SUARA RAKYAT MALAYSIA

The decision by the developer and manager of the Bakun Dam project, Sarawak Hidro to start the impoundment of the Bakun Dam yesterday is the height of irresponsibility. Only the day before, the people had been told that there has to be seven continuous days of dry weather and water depth of below 60m for it to be safe to flood the dam.

There has been continuous inclement weather in the area which has caused the worst environmental disaster in Sarawak with the 250 km logjam the length of the Rajang river, resulting in damage to bridges and villages, disruption to river transport and destruction of fish.

Each day of delay was costing the developers a fortune but the health and safety of the people downstream cannot be compromised just to save costs. According to The Star:

“The flooding was initiated in a somewhat sudden manner at short notice after Sarawak Hidro engineers held a late meeting on Tuesday night and decided that the weather and river conditions were safe enough…”

Sarawak Hidro had gone ahead with the impounding of the dam despite the fact that the Bakun folk had lodged a police report because the issue of compensation for the people affected had not yet been settled although they were resettled 15 years ago. Furthermore, the Emergency Rescue Plan for people living downstream has not been made public.

While the Sarawak State Government is acting irresponsiblyly, the Federal government cannot feign ignorance since Sarawak Hidro is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated.

The Bakun Dam had federal endorsement from the very beginning and Dr Mahathir must bear total responsibility for erecting this “second highest concrete rock-filled dam in the world” to show that “Malaysia Boleh”. Despite the opposition by NGO activists as well as dam experts since the 1970s, this project has carried on and with it a litany of disasters for the indigenous peoples as well as Malaysian tax payers as we had warned years ago.

The entire Bakun dam project has been littered with broken promises, environmental assessment reports and experts’ opinions ignored and other compromises. We have already witnessed the environmental disaster in recent years but the 250km logjam and dead fish along the Rajang during the last week has been the worst so far.

With this brazen disregard for safety standards by impounding the dam, the Sarawak State Government and the Federal Government must bear full responsibility for any future disasters that may happen at this accursed Bakun dam. When it happens, they should not feign ignorance, shed crocodile tears or try and blame God again!